A young woman with a long black braid peels back tape from a dark window to look at a huge glowing blue sphere over a city at night. — Nona says good night to the blue thing in the sky, which only she can hear singing.

The Locked Tomb · Book III · 2022

Nona the Ninth

Five days in a besieged city with a six-month-old girl in a borrowed body, a six-legged dog and a sky that has turned blue.

Nona the Ninth (Tordotcom, 13 September 2022) was never meant to exist as a book. It was the planned first act of Alecto the Ninth, which ran to some 140,000 words on its own until Tamsyn Muir’s editor made her hand it over as a separate novel. “Nona sprang from the planned first act of Alecto,” Muir told Vox. Tor announced the four-book series in July 2021; Alecto the Ninth is still forthcoming, with no date or cover as of October 2026.

It is the strangest and sweetest of the three. For five days, counted down in comic chapter-lists, we stay close beside Nona, a six-month-old girl in Harrowhark Nonagesimus’s body, who teaches at a refugee school, loves a six-legged dog and wants a birthday party. Between the days run eleven dream chapters titled after verses of the Gospel of John, in which a man called John tells Harrow how the world ended. Like the rest of this walk, the page spoils everything.

Part 1

Day One — five days until the Tomb opens

The book opens with a guest list for Nona’s birthday party, annotated by Camilla Hect with dry vetoes. Dream · John 20:8. On an Earth where ash falls like snow, a man named John walks beside a young woman and tells her about his degrees, his research and his team: scientists A— and M—, a lawyer, C—, an engineer, G—. The planet is dying and overcrowded; his project would freeze people for transport to other worlds, until a rival plan for faster-than-light ships draws away the trillionaire funders. They eat meat in the ash and drink from the sea. She asks when he will get to the part where he hurts her. Soon, he says. The listener is Harrow, whose soul fled into the Locked Tomb at the end of Harrow the Ninth.

Late in the year, in a dark flat on the thirty-third floor of a banned tower block in New Rho, Camilla writes down Nona’s dream: a painted face pushing her down into water. Nona, about six months old, has Harrowhark’s body and no memory of being anyone. Her keepers are Camilla, Palamedes Sextus, who surfaces in Camilla’s body on a timer, and Pyrrha Dve, ten thousand years old and living in the body of her dead necromancer, Gideon the First. At breakfast Pyrrha scrambles radioactive-orange powdered eggs and braids Nona’s hair while she and Palamedes argue over a Blood of Eden deadline, a search for something at “Site B”, and the Cohort holding out in the besieged barracks. Over the city hangs a monstrous blue sphere: Varun the Eater, the seventh Resurrection Beast.

New Rho is hot, crowded with refugees from twenty planets; in the park, necromancers are burned in cages. Nona is Teacher’s Aide at a school on the first two floors of an office block, where she cleans whiteboards and minds Noodle, the science teacher’s six-legged dog. The children have adopted her into their gang: Hot Sauce, its burn-scarred leader, Honesty, Beautiful Ruby, Born in the Morning and little Kevin. They idolise the science teacher, whom they call the Angel. Today Hot Sauce is watching a stranger who is watching the school. At home Palamedes has Nona handle bones, and nothing happens. At bedtime Camilla tells how she found Pyrrha and Nona fallen out of the River, how Blood of Eden took them in though Gideon the First had killed its leader, Commander Wake, and how a Cohort raid stole Gideon Nav’s body.

A dark-haired woman sits writing by a tiny torch beside a bed where a young woman with long loose black hair lies with her eyes squeezed shut. — **III · 1 The Dream Journal** The book’s first scene. Before dawn in a dark flat in New Rho, Camilla Hect writes down Nona’s dream by the light of a torch taped to a clipboard: a painted face, water, arms holding her down. Nona has Harrowhark’s body and no memory of being anyone. The dream is the first hint of whose memories they are.

A lean scarred man leans over a small table where a young woman with long black hair braids it by a hot plate of bright orange eggs. — **III · 2 Orange Eggs** Pyrrha Dve, ten thousand years old and living in her dead necromancer’s body, scrambles radioactive-orange powdered eggs and braids Nona’s hair into one big braid and two small ones. Over breakfast Nona listens while Pyrrha and Palamedes argue about a Blood of Eden deadline, a search at “Site B” and the besieged Cohort barracks.

A man in a dark shirt and a black-haired young woman seen from behind sit on a grey ruined shore in falling ash. — **III · 3 Dream: Ash on the Shore** The first of eleven dream chapters, each titled after a verse of the Gospel of John. On a dying Earth thick with ash, John tells Harrow about his research, his team and a plan to freeze people for transport to other worlds. They eat and drink sea water. She asks when he will reach the part where he hurts her. Soon, he says.

A young woman with a long black braid walks a small white six-legged dog across sunlit rubble under a blue-stained sky. — **III · 4 Nona and Noodle** Nona is Teacher’s Aide at a refugee school in a beat-up office block, and one of her jobs is minding Noodle, the science teacher’s dog: dirty white, gentle, six-legged, in little pattens. Nona loves him without reservation. Muir has promised readers one thing about this book: the dog lives.

A freckled woman in braces and a dusty jacket teaches a small class while a young woman with a black braid wipes a whiteboard and children watch from the back. — **III · 5 The Hour of Science** The Hour of Science, the best hour of Nona’s day. The gang — Hot Sauce, Honesty, Beautiful Ruby, Born in the Morning and little Kevin — adopted Nona because she lives in the forbidden Building and talks to the teacher they worship, the Angel. Today Hot Sauce is watching a stranger who watches the school.

Part 2

Day Two — four days until the Tomb opens

Dream · John 5:20. The lawyer fights in court to keep the lab open. Then the power to the cryogenic vats is cut, and most of the bodies rot, except every body John has personally handled. Those stay perfect.

At school Honesty has a black eye from stealing air-conditioners off a convoy of megatrucks, where a thief opened one truck to find strange people inside who all turned to look at him at once. Hot Sauce has Nona fake a radio call to scare off the watcher.

Dream · John 15:23. After the power cut John’s eyes turn gold. He can feel where the incorruptible bodies are, then move them without touching them; he names two of them, both dead children given to the project, Ulysses and Titania.

A flashback tells why Nona no longer swims: a month ago, floating at dusk among jellyfish that only tingled her, she saw six Merv Wing Edenites hold Camilla up on the beach. Nona was shot and healed; Camilla and Palamedes merged for a moment, one eye of each colour, and killed them all. Now Pyrrha comes home bloodied from a riot and warns that three accused necromancers will burn in the park tonight. In the dark corridor Nona peels back the window tape to look at Varun.

She, and nobody else, could hear it sing.

Dream · John 5:18. Fearing a cover-up, John and his friends decide to go public: they stream it.

A man with a torch stands among rows of dark frosted tanks in a powerless laboratory, looking at one body lying perfectly preserved. — **III · 6 Dream: The Incorruptible** In court the lawyer fights to keep the lab open; then the power to the cryogenic vats is cut and most of the stored bodies rot. Every body John has handled himself stays perfect. It is the first sign that the man telling this story is about to become something else.

At dusk a young woman with a long black braid stands in the shallows among glowing jellyfish while a woman with knives lowered stands in the water behind her. — **III · 7 The Jellyfish Swim** Why Nona no longer swims. A month ago, among jellyfish that only tingled her, she saw six Merv Wing Edenites seize Camilla on the beach. Nona was shot and healed at once; Camilla and Palamedes merged for a moment, one eye of each colour, and killed all six. Then Nona drove the bleeding Camilla home on a motorbike.

A man with gold eyes stares at his own raised hand in a bare laboratory of steel shelving and a cold-storage door. — **III · 8 Dream: Ulysses and Titania** After the power cut, John’s eyes turn gold. He finds he can feel where the incorruptible bodies are, then move them without touching them. He names his two test corpses, children born twenty days apart, Ulysses and Titania: Titania from Shakespeare, Ulysses after his nana’s dog.

Part 3

Day Three — three days until the Tomb opens

Blood of Eden’s Ctesiphon Wing bursts in, hoods the household and drives them to a government building, Pyrrha in the boot. Crown, Coronabeth Tridentarius under a code name, frees Nona. In a meeting room Pyrrha is locked into a chair rigged to kill her if she moves, and the masked cell commander, We Suffer, reports a small House shuttle in orbit, so a Lyctor has come through the River. Their “Lyctor experiment”, Nona, talks in full sentences but shows no signs of power; Palamedes promises them a Lyctor, or something like one. Nona knows the masked bodyguard is Pash. Then Crown and Camilla take her to see the Captain, Judith Deuteros, a sick prisoner through whom the Beast speaks. Everyone else hears screaming; Nona hears it call her a misused green thing and ask her to come back.

At school Hot Sauce tells Nona at nap time how her family died fighting the Cohort, and calls Blood of Eden traitors and zombie lovers. Nona tells her the Secret: she is dying.

Dream · John 8:1. Crowds besiege the lab as John learns he can heal the living. To buy time he raises walls of bone three feet thick around the compound, built from the cattle and sheep on the farmland around it. The team’s nun warns him he is making Christ’s mistake, drawing too much attention.

When Camilla is hours late, Nona and Hot Sauce slip away to a public broadcast in the square and watch from a traffic-light crossbar. “Prince Ianthe Naberius the First” — Ianthe, working the corpse of her cavalier — offers the Emperor’s amnesty and presents his only daughter, Crown Prince Kiriona Gaia: Kiriona (Gideon), dead and raised, red hair wreathed in fingerbones and blossoms. Nona knows the face from her dreams. In the riot that follows, the Angel and a masked driver pull the girls into a truck. Home up thirty-three flights, Nona learns Pyrrha went out at lunch to find her and has not come back.

Dream · John 19:18. John cannot bring Ulysses and Titania truly back. The team learns its funding went to the FTL ships, and suspects an escape built for the rich.

A lean scarred person sits locked in a heavy chair in a bare room while a masked, hooded commander, a goggled bodyguard and a golden-haired woman look on. — **III · 9 The Meeting Room** Blood of Eden’s Ctesiphon Wing hauls the household in. Pyrrha sits in a chair rigged to kill her if she moves while the cell commander, We Suffer, reports a House shuttle in orbit: a Lyctor has come through the River. If she reports that their “Lyctor experiment” talks in full sentences but shows no signs of power, she says, the other wings will call it useless. Nona recognises the masked bodyguard as Pash.

A gaunt dark-haired woman screams from a bed while a young woman with a black braid leans in to listen and two women by the door flinch. — **III · 10 The Captain** Crown and Camilla take Nona to the Captain, Judith Deuteros, heir of the Second House and now a sick prisoner. When Judith screams, everyone hears screaming but Nona, who hears the Beast speaking through her: “you misused green thing—come back to us.” It is talking to Nona, and it wants her back.

A man with raised arms stands on a concrete roof as a vast pale rampart of bone rises around the compound, holding back distant crowds. — **III · 11 Dream: The Wall** Crowds besiege the lab as John learns he can heal the living as well as move the dead. To buy time, he raises walls of bone three feet thick around the whole compound, made from the farm’s cattle and sheep. The team’s nun warns him he is repeating Christ’s mistake of drawing too much attention.

A young woman with a long black braid and a girl sit on a traffic-light crossbar above a crowd, looking back toward a giant screen showing a waxen young man and a red-haired woman in white. — **III · 12 The Two Princes** Nona and Hot Sauce sneak off to the public broadcast and watch from a crossbar. “Prince Ianthe Naberius the First” — Ianthe, wearing her dead cavalier — offers the Emperor’s amnesty, then presents his only daughter, Crown Prince Kiriona Gaia: Gideon Nav, dead and raised, red hair crowned with fingerbones. Nona knows that face from her dreams.

Part 4

Day Four — forty-eight hours until the Tomb opens

The school is closing for the unrest, and the gang swears an oath to protect each other. Then the Angel shows Nona a drawing she made of a “cradle creature” she should never have seen. Palamedes surfaces and asks the Angel about a necromantic implant; the frightened teacher slips out, returns, and accuses him of being a Lyctor. Hot Sauce walks in, and a sniper fires through the window, hitting Nona and Camilla.

Nona wakes in her own blood. The Angel — Aim, a senior figure in Blood of Eden — had called in a liquidation order, and Merv Wing’s sniper carried it out; now Merv Wing refuses to call it off. When Nona sits up, Pash shoots her again, and a Merv Wing squad coming up the stairs is fought off. Hot Sauce, let out of the generator room, sees the pool of blood, understands that Nona really was shot and got up again, and shoots her in the head.

Dream · John 5:1. The agents of a country whose leader has secretly died hire John to puppet the corpse in public. M— and A— negotiate the fee: billions, and a suitcase nuke.

Nona wakes tied to chairs, and has her third tantrum. She breaks hands and feet free and regrows them, batters down a door, takes more bullets and screams until a soldier drops their gun. Hooded, she hears her own mouth say:

Fool. You’re killing her.

Dream · John 3:20. The FTL ships’ engineering doesn’t match their published plans. Governments brush John off; he leans into the cult and calls himself a necromancer. In the dream, night no longer turns to morning.

Five children and a young woman with a black braid stand in a circle in an empty classroom with their hands stacked together. — **III · 13 The Gang’s Oath** The school is closing for the unrest, and the gang swears an oath to protect one another, Nona included. It matters to her more than almost anything; it will be tested within hours, and on the last day Nona has to come back and tell them what she really is.

A freckled woman holds up a child’s drawing of a strange curled creature while a dark-haired woman takes off her dark glasses and a young woman watches from the table. — **III · 14 The Cradle Creature** The Angel shows Nona a drawing she made of a “cradle creature” she should never have seen. Palamedes surfaces in Camilla’s body and asks about a necromantic implant; the teacher accuses him of being a Lyctor. Then Hot Sauce walks in and a sniper fires through the window: Aim had slipped out and called in a liquidation order, and Merv Wing carried it out.

A man stands beside a grey-faced older man seated stiffly at a desk while two people in office clothes talk by the door and a metal suitcase sits on the floor. — **III · 15 Dream: The President** The agents of a country whose leader has secretly died hire John to work the corpse in public. M— and A— negotiate the fee: billions of dollars, and a suitcase nuke. The dream gives John’s friends only initials, and this is the moment the most dangerous object in his story enters it.

A young woman with a long black braid and torn clothes stands in a wrecked corridor among splintered chairs as masked soldiers back away covering their ears. — **III · 16 The Third Tantrum** Shot by Pash, then in the head by a frightened Hot Sauce, Nona wakes tied to chairs and throws her third tantrum. She breaks her hands and feet free and regrows them, batters down a door, takes more bullets, screams until a soldier drops their gun. Then, hooded, she hears her own mouth say, “Fool. You’re killing her.”

Part 5

Day Five — the barracks

Palamedes, furious and loving, examines Nona and finds her soul trying to leave her body. We Suffer, unmasked now, takes command. Crown goes to the Cohort barracks as an asylum-seeker with Judith, bugged; Ianthe finds the bug and demands every House asset, above all Harrowhark. A new voice, “the Saint of Duty”, answers: Pyrrha, playing Gideon the First, passing code words that say only Nona can reach Gideon’s body. Palamedes bargains with We Suffer: the key to the Locked Tomb in exchange for the Sixth House Oversight Body, whom Merv Wing holds hostage; Camilla adds a shuttle.

Dream · John 9:22. Thousands join the cult; troops arrive. When five followers are killed outside the wall, John feels their deaths as power and kills everyone carrying a gun within a kilometre, more than a hundred people. He calls it an accident. Now he tells the dreamer he doesn’t have accidents.

Camilla cuts Nona’s hair, dresses her in black and dyes her eyes, and makes her into Harrowhark. In a hall of standing corpses Ianthe, in Naberius’s body, waits with Crown and Pyrrha. Pressed, Nona imitates the Captain’s scream, but it comes out far stranger; the lights die and everyone with a necromantic body falls. Camilla claims the duel left unanswered at Canaan House, and Crown makes Ianthe accept by threatening to kill herself. Ianthe runs Camilla through, but Camilla grips her wrist and calls the match, Palamedes leaps into Naberius’s body, and Ianthe’s corpses collapse on top of Nona.

Behind a blood ward, which Nona’s healing slowly wears down, she finds Gideon’s body. It opens golden eyes. Nona kisses it, then explains that it looked like it wanted to be kissed. When Palamedes tries to draw blood, the corpse grabs him: this is Prince Kiriona Gaia, raised by John as a revenant, and she wants to come with them to the Ninth House. Nona says she is lying, and dislikes her, and cannot stop watching how sadly she moves.

A man with gold eyes stands in a gap in a pale wall looking out over an empty dusty road strewn with dropped rifles. — **III · 17 Dream: A Hundred Guns** Thousands have joined the cult; troops have come. When five followers die outside the wall, John feels their deaths as power and kills everyone carrying a gun within a kilometre, more than a hundred people. He called it an accident at the time; now he tells Harrow that he doesn’t have accidents.

A dark-haired woman cuts a young woman’s long black braid with scissors in a dim room, black robes laid out on a chair. — **III · 18 Making Harrowhark** For Palamedes’s bargain Nona has to pass as Harrowhark Nonagesimus, whose body she is wearing. Camilla cuts off her long hair, dresses her in black and dyes her eyes. Then Pash and the Angel drive them to the Cohort barracks, where Ianthe has demanded every House asset, above all Harrow.

A waxen young man stands at the head of a hall of motionless dead soldiers, flanked by a golden-haired woman and a lean scarred figure, facing two women in dark clothes. — **III · 19 The Barracks Hall** Ianthe, in Naberius Tern’s body, receives them in a hall full of puppet corpses, with Crown on one side and Pyrrha, playing her own dead necromancer, on the other. Pressed to perform, Nona imitates the Captain’s scream, and it comes out like nothing the Captain ever made. The lights die, and everyone with a necromantic body falls down.

A dark-haired woman and a waxen young man cross swords in a stone hall while a golden-haired woman watches tensely behind them. — **III · 20 Match to the Sixth** Camilla claims the duel she was owed at Canaan House, and Crown forces Ianthe to accept by threatening to kill herself. Ianthe runs Camilla through, but Camilla grips her wrist and claims the match, and Palamedes leaps out of her and into Naberius’s body. Ianthe’s puppet corpses come down on top of Nona.

A pale red-haired young woman in white with a wreath of small bones and blossoms opens golden eyes on a bed as a black-clad young woman leans over her. — **III · 21 Golden Eyes** Behind a blood ward that Nona’s healing wears down, she finds Gideon’s body. It opens golden eyes, and Nona kisses it: “You looked like you wanted to be kissed, that’s all.” The corpse plays dead for Pyrrha, then grabs Palamedes. She is Prince Kiriona Gaia, John’s revenant, and she wants to go to the Ninth House.

Part 6

Day Five — the Convoy and the River

The hostages are hidden in the Convoy of megatrucks. Nona goes to Honesty’s flat to confess that she is a zombie; Hot Sauce forgives her, and the gang takes her back. Varun begins to drop its Heralds over the city, and for the first time Nona sees Pyrrha afraid. Nona takes Crown’s sword, climbs onto the truck roofs in the blue light and yells at the sky, which only yesterday she had asked not to do anything weird. Through Judith the Beast says it came to help her; Nona begs mercy for the Captain and her friends and asks it to wait. The Captain wakes and asks, “Harrowhark?” “No,” Nona admits at last. “And I never was.”

Dream · John 1:20. The end of the world. The rich are about to escape on the ships. John threatens the dead leader’s government with the suitcase nuke, carried by G— on a dead man’s switch, and with the corpse that still controls their nuclear codes. His followers turn; most of his team die in a gunfight; the nun who has been helping him look for the soul dies in front of him, and at last he sees a soul. He kills G—, sets off the nuke and fires the missiles. Billions die, and he becomes a god. He tries to take in Earth’s soul, cannot hold it all, and builds a body for the rest out of his blood, ribs, vomit and dirt, modelled on a childhood doll. That body is Alecto. He kills the sun and the planets chasing the ships, which escape at the edge of his reach, all but one.

In a tunnel Kiriona asks Nona where Harrow is. Pyrrha carries Nona, who can no longer walk, and another voice comes out of her and scolds Pyrrha. Trapped by Heralds, Palamedes, now in Naberius’s body, and the wounded Camilla decide to make a Lyctor to cross the River. Pyrrha begs them not to, then kisses them both. Palamedes gives Camilla something white and powdery to swallow, she bursts into flame, and out of the fire walks a new person, Paul, who offers Nona Ianthe’s silk handkerchief and wishes her a happy birthday. A megatruck loads the Oversight Body, Noodle, the Angel, Pash, Crown, the Captain and the rest; Paul drops it into the River.

Dream · John 5:4. On a beach John draws their initials in the sand. Harrow asks what it means to love God, says she will find a different divine within the Tomb, and walks away from him into the water toward a tower breaking the surface. John tells her he raised his friends again without their memories.

In the River Nona takes the wheel. A cone-capped tower of grey bricks rears out of the water, bigger than the Building. As the windshield cracks she thinks of dying as Nona, Paul reminds her that Noodle is in the back, and she drives them out onto the Ninth House shuttle field.

A black-clad young woman stands on the roof of a racing truck with a sword, shouting up at a huge blue sphere as insect-like shapes fall from the sky. — **III · 22 The Truck Roof** Varun begins dropping its Heralds over the city. Nona takes Crown’s sword, climbs onto the truck roofs and yells at the sky she had begged not to do anything weird. The Beast, through Judith, says it came to help her; Nona begs mercy and asks it to wait. The Captain asks, “Harrowhark?” “No,” Nona admits. “And I never was.”

A lone man stands on a dark hill watching a vast white light bloom on the horizon. — **III · 23 Dream: The End of the World** John 1:20 is the end of the world. With the ships about to launch, John’s followers turn, most of his friends die in a gunfight, and the nun who helped him dies in front of him; at last he sees a soul. He kills G—, sets off the nuke and fires the missiles. Billions die, and John becomes a god.

A man with gold eyes kneels on bare dark earth beside a tall sleeping woman in a white shift with long golden hair. — **III · 24 Dream: The Made Body** Earth’s soul is too vast for John to take in, so he builds a body for the rest out of his blood, his ribs, vomit and dirt, partly in the image of his childhood Barbie. “I wanted to make you the most beautiful body I could think of,” he tells the dreamer. This is Alecto, the Body in the Locked Tomb.

A lean scarred man holds a black-robed young woman by the shoulder beside a red-haired woman in white with a bone wreath, as a tall silhouette stands in a column of white flame in a truck. — **III · 25 Paul Gets Born** Trapped by Heralds, Palamedes, in Naberius’s body, and the wounded Camilla choose to make a Lyctor so they can cross the River. Pyrrha begs them not to, then kisses them both. Palamedes gives Camilla something white and powdery; she swallows it and bursts into flame, and out of the fire walks someone new: Paul, who wishes Nona a happy birthday.

A man stands on a grey beach with a stick while a black-haired young woman walks away from him into the water toward a distant tower. — **III · 26 Dream: Into the River** The last dream chapter. On a beach John draws their initials in the sand. Harrow asks what it means to love God, says she will find a different divine within the Tomb, and walks away from him into the water. He tells her he raised his friends again, without their memories.

A black-clad young woman grips the wheel of a huge truck as a cone-capped tower of grey bricks rises from dark water ahead, a calm companion beside her. — **III · 27 The Tower in the River** Paul drops the megatruck into the River, and the River doesn’t touch them. Nona takes the wheel as an impossible cone-capped tower of grey bricks, bigger than the Building, rears out of the water. As the windshield cracks she thinks of dying as Nona, until Paul reminds her that Noodle is in the back, and she drives them onto the Ninth.

Part 7

The Ninth House and the Epilogue

The Ninth is overrun by “devils”, the possessing force that took Colum Asht in Gideon the Ninth: corpses with pinprick red lights in their eye sockets. Kiriona stands over the fallen and a wounded Crux. At the Anastasian Monument the survivors kneel to their Reverend Daughter, and Aiglamene, facing Gideon dead, blames Harrow for it. Nona’s wounds have stopped healing. She tells Paul and Pyrrha there is a person in a box and that she will be different afterwards; Pyrrha gives her birthday present, a T-shirt advertising cheap moustache rides.

At the Tomb, Ianthe, back in her own body, glues them in place, and Nona notices that the two Princes wear matching friendship bracelets. Kiriona says the Emperor sent her to open the Tomb and kill Alecto. Ianthe says that John loves Alecto, and the last wall in Nona’s head falls; her body begins to come apart. Pyrrha drops Ianthe with a Herald bullet. Opening the Tomb takes the Emperor’s blood, which Kiriona has, and a burst of death energy; Kiriona kills Crux, who is willing and dying. Inside, in black and ice, Nona remembers John bringing her here, sees Anastasia’s bones curled against the rock, and sees the Body with a sleeping girl inside it. “Well, happy birthday to me, I guess,” she says, and falls onto it.

The Epilogue speaks in a biblical voice. The rock that was made meat wakes in a body: Alecto breaks her chains, breaking her wrist with them, and Harrow wakes in her own body. Ianthe tries to kill Alecto and is struck into the water. Harrow declares her love; Alecto, who doesn’t know what a kiss is, bites her mouth. Learning that Harrow descends from Anastasia, Alecto swears to her as she once swore to Anastasia. Alecto carries Harrow to John’s ship, finds him drunk and asleep, and drives an iron sword through his chest into his heart. John opens his eyes.

Annabel, good morning.

A red-haired woman in white holds a drawn sword in a dark stone landing field beside a wounded one-eyed old man, as figures with tiny red eye-lights approach. — **III · 28 The Shuttle Field** The Ninth House is overrun by “devils”, the possessing force that took Colum Asht at Canaan House: corpses with pinprick red lights in their eye sockets. Kiriona stands guard over the fallen and over Crux, the old seneschal Harrow left in charge, wounded now. Nona can see more of them coming out of the dark.

Black-robed figures with painted faces kneel before a black-clad young woman while a scarred old woman with a bone leg stands apart, scowling. — **III · 29 Reverend Daughter** At the Anastasian Monument the survivors kneel to their Reverend Daughter, and Aiglamene, facing Gideon dead, blames Harrow for it. Nona’s wounds have stopped healing. She tells Paul and Pyrrha there is a person in a box and she will be different afterwards; Pyrrha gives her a birthday T-shirt advertising cheap moustache rides.

In a black icy void a young woman in black steps into a pale pool toward a golden-haired woman in a white shift chained on a rock, old bones at its base. — **III · 30 The Tomb** Opening the Tomb takes the Emperor’s blood, which Kiriona carries, and a burst of death; Kiriona kills Crux, who is willing and dying. Inside, Nona remembers John bringing her here, sees Anastasia’s bones and the Body with a sleeping girl inside. “Well, happy birthday to me, I guess.”

A tall golden-haired woman in a white shift raises an iron sword over a man asleep in a chair, an unconscious black-haired young woman over her other arm. — **III · 31 Annabel, Good Morning** The Epilogue. Alecto wakes, breaks her chains, bites Harrow’s mouth for a kiss and swears to her as she once swore to Anastasia. Then she carries the fainted Harrow to John’s ship, finds him drunk and asleep, and drives an iron sword through his heart. John opens his eyes: “Annabel, good morning.”

Necromancy and relics in this book

Nona’s body. She heals beyond any Lyctor (regrown hands and feet, bullets, a shot to the head), understands any language if she can see the speaker’s face, and is only tingled by jellyfish, but she shows no necromancy, and by the last days her soul is trying to leave her body.
Revenants. Kiriona Gaia is Gideon Nav’s corpse raised by John: golden eyes, waxy skin, a neck wound under a blue neckerchief, a bloodless puncture in her chest.
Riding the dead. Palamedes shares Camilla’s body on a timer; Ianthe spends most of the book in Naberius Tern’s corpse; Palamedes jumps into that corpse during the duel.
Lyctorhood. Paul is made when Camilla swallows a white powder Palamedes gives her and burns: a merger of two souls into one new person.
Varun the Eater and its Heralds. The seventh Resurrection Beast blues the sky over New Rho, speaks through Judith, and drops its insect-like Heralds; a Herald bullet Pyrrha got from Wake fells Ianthe.
The Tomb’s lock. Opening it needs the Emperor’s blood (Kiriona’s) and a burst of thanergy from a death; inside is a salt moat, Anastasia’s bones and the shackled Body.
How necromancy began. In the dream chapters John’s handled corpses stay incorruptible, his eyes turn gold, and he learns to move and puppet the dead and to heal the living; the power released by deaths makes him a god.

Continuity notes

Nona ends her five days: her soul returns to Alecto’s body, and Alecto wakes.
Harrow dreams the John chapters from the Tomb, and wakes in her own body in the Epilogue, unconscious on John’s ship.
Camilla and Palamedes become Paul, a Lyctor (“they”).
Gideon returns as Kiriona Gaia, John’s revenant daughter, and reaches the Ninth.
Pyrrha, Crown, Judith, Aim, Pash and Noodle cross the River to the Ninth with the Sixth House Oversight Body.
Ianthe leaves Naberius’s corpse for her own body, is felled by a Herald bullet and struck into the water.
Crux dies, sacrificed to open the Tomb. Aiglamene survives.
John is stabbed through the heart by Alecto and wakes.
Hot Sauce and the gang stay on New Rho, alive.

Notes

Nothing from Nona the Ninth, or from any Locked Tomb book, has reached the screen; no film or series has been announced.
The book was Act I of Alecto the Ninth until it grew to about 140,000 words; Alecto, which Muir says starts where Nona stops, is forthcoming with no date or cover as of October 2026.
The 2023 paperback adds “The Unwanted Guest”, a one-act play with Palamedes, Ianthe and Dulcinea and seven coffins; see the stories page.
The audiobook is read by Moira Quirk (Recorded Books).
Won the 2023 Premio Ignotus for foreign novel; finalist for the 2022 Nebula and the 2023 Hugo and Locus awards.

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